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Argos, a British company selling household goods and furnishings, with over 700 stores across the country, has recently received a CNG-powered Scania truck tractor, the first out of five such vehicles ordered in 2014.

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The first compressed natural gas-powered truck tractor has just been added to Argos' fleet. The remaining four vehicles will follow very soon. Thanks to CNG, the trucks are very silent, which means they are particularly well suited for work in rural areas, as well as for nighttime and early morning deliveries.

Each tractor can be used for hauling trailers, with the entire set-up's gross weight up to 40 tons. Motivation is provided by Scania OC09 102 9-litre engines, whose emission levels comply with the stringent Euro 6 levels. The unit offers 340 PS (250 kW) of power at 1900 RPM and 1600 Nm of torque between 1100 and 1400 RPM.

The trucks are a unique manufacturer’s offer, opposed to an aftermarket adaption, which made our purchasing decision easy. The research and development process Scania has undertaken in the product, along with a ten year duty-differential promise from the government, gives us a great deal of confidence in gas powered operation.

The final part of the equation is the growing gas filling station infrastructure. These trucks will be based at our Magna Park, Lutterworth distribution centre, just a few miles from the Gasrec refuelling station at the DIRFT (Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal) in Daventry. With an expected range of up to 450 kilometres, the vehicles will run initially on daily return-to-base operations, but in the future this could change as the UK gas refuelling infrastructure continues to develop and grow.

David Landy, Argos Fleet Manager

The engine is a monofuel one and may run on either natural gas or biomethane, stored in either compressed or liquefied form. Using biomethane cuts CO2 emissions by as much as 70 percent. The engine's thermal efficiency is relatively high at 40 percent.

We are delighted that Argos has become the first UK operator to put our dedicated gas-powered trucks into operation. Today, there are approaching 4,000 gas-powered Scania vehicles in service around the world. This, together with an ever-developing fuel-supply infrastructure, represents a major step forward in terms of combating emissions of greenhouse gas.